Childhood Patterns

There`s truth in moldy proverbs. However, today`s platitude could be: The thimble never rolls far from the thumb.

There`s been a lot of noise from the ``It`s Not My Fault Generation`` about the personality-shattering influence unknowing parents can have on equally unsuspecting offspring.

So here`s a rather sobering Mother`s Day thought: Have you ever wondered what kind of Mom raises a ``fashion designer``?

Just what sort of woman instills such an overwhelming sense of style in her child? Such a burning desire to influence the way the world dresses? As well as the inexplicable urge to see their name emblazoned on other people`s chests, backs, even rear ends?

There are stacks of how-not-to books detailing how patterns of irrational behavior, lack of trust, flawed self-perceptions and emotional reactions to people, places and asparagus are formulated during the Play-Doh Period.

I`ve wondered about fashion designers` childhoods in much the same way that reporters covering psycho-killer trials ponder the earliest possible beginnings of socially deviant behavior.

OK, so maybe this is stretching it just a tad. But you get the idea.

To gain insight into this unexplored area of Child Style

Development, I queried three young New York designers -- Charlotte Neuville, Patricia Clyne and Michael Leva. We talked about their mothers` influence on their fashion sense. Then I asked the moms about their kids.

Interestingly, it turned out that all three designers did time in private schools. Schools where they were required to wear -- shudder -- uniforms. Navy blazers, navy skirts, navy slacks. And boring white shirts.

Aha! Had forced conformity at an impressionable age led them to uncontrolled self-expressions as well as a need to persuade others to dress in a similar fashion?

Could be. Charlotte says she rebelled ``constantly`` clothing-wise once she hit high school. Her mother remembers her bucking trends and creating her own. Mom still remembers that ``enormous felt hat`` Charlotte wore.

Michael says he ``definitely went through a rock `n` roll stage in art school.`` Even today, he wears motorcycle boots. Even wore `em on the cover of 7 Days, a New York magazine.

And when Patricia got to campus, she shopped at thrift stores and made odd outfits from antique men`s trench coats and feathered fedoras.

According to their mothers (who certainly should know), Charlotte, Patricia and Michael all had noticeably creative bents to their personalities. Charlotte was an art major. Patricia majored in English at New York University. And Michael`s earliest passion was plants.

``He was always designing gardens in the back yard and the neighbors` yards,`` remembers 57-year-old Marie Leva. Michael even started out in college studying landscape architecture.

So the neon warning signs pointing to a career in some creative field were there. But fashion design?

All three mothers insist they are blameless; that they had no way of knowing they were raising fashion designers.

Until it was too late.

All three claim that it is only in 20/20 hindsight that they are able to trace the path their children took. The patterns, it seems, were cut quite early.

``Patricia was one of six children and three

girls,`` says Elizabeth Clyne, Patricia`s 68-year-old mother. ``I had no indication that she would end up as a fashion designer. But looking back, there were some clues.``

When Patricia was 2 years old, her mother would put her down for her nap and Patricia would wake up, go to the closet and completely change her clothes. ``At the time, we all thought it was hilarious,`` Mrs. Clyne recalls.

In her early years, Patricia wore what Mom bought. But in high school, she began establishing her own patterns. Literally. She started taking her parents` clothes apart to make scaled-down verions for herself.

``I used to spend evenings taking apart my father`s jackets instead of going out to parties with my friends,`` Patricia admits. ``My parents used to get so mad at me.``

``A lot of the time,`` Mrs. Clyne says, ``I didn`t even know she had done it.``

Charlotte`s mother, 68-year-old Christiane Neuville, thinks she should have had a clue, too. ``Once, Charlotte embroidered a beautiful scarlet and gold letter for a high school project on The Scarlet Letter. And she loved to dress her Barbie dolls. I remember she made a felt coat for her hamster, Herman. She used to like to dress up the cats, too.``